Two Hands
by Under A Cloud
Summary: Momoi loves the piano, but she is only good on one hand. Aomine would be her other hand. (AomineMomoi friendship one-shot)


I love Momoi and I love Aomine, unfortunately they are a pair I simply cannot imagine as a couple. This is set in their Teiko days, a little before the match between Akashi and Murasakibara.

Summary: Momoi loves the piano, but she is only good on one hand. Aomine would be her other hand. (AomineMomoi friendship one-shot)

Disclaimer: I don't own KnB and 'Fur Elise'.

**Two Hands**

"Momoi-san, we will try again, alright?" said the old lady in a clipped tone as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Her pallid, wrinkled face wore a look of disdain.

The pink-haired girl bit on her lower lip and nodded dully. Taking a deep breath, Momoi raised her hands to commence another performance of 'Fur Elise'. Flawless sweet melody flowed from the tip of her fingers but her piano teacher's lips remained in a tight-pressed frown, and that frown intensified to a scowl when Momoi stumbled over the change in mood at the first movement. Panicking, Momoi found herself losing control over the supporting rhythm played by her left hand and the whole song degraded into an offbeat mess. With a resigned sigh, Takashi-sensei cut her off for the umpteenth time today.

"That would be enough," Takashi-sensei interrupted, "It seems you've made almost no progress since our previous session, Momoi-san. If you aren't serious about practicing the piano, let me remind you that being my student is a privilege, and I have plenty of job opportunities out there. We will end here today and I suggest you buck up on practice, or else our next session will also be our last."

_It wasn't like that!_ A voice in Momoi's mind screamed vehemently. The pink-haired girl wanted to retort Takashi-sensei and tell her that she had spent much of her free time practicing 'Fur Elise' for the past week, but in the end she only lowered her head to hide her dejected expression, opting for a docile response instead. Rising from her seat, Momoi bowed gingerly to the grey-haired lady and said, "I understand, Takashi-sensei. I'll see you again next week."

To which her piano teacher responded with a condescending sneer and lightly picked up her bag, heading for the door without answering to Momoi.

When the 'thud' which signified that Takashi-sensei had left sounded, Momoi lifted her head and turned back to the piano. An involuntary sigh slipped from her lips, and she stared at the music scores for 'Fur Elise' with a heated glare.

"You… I've been working on you for the past week! Why is it that I just can't grasp you? And Takashi-sensei too, I know she's an acclaimed piano teacher but she shouldn't say that without first understanding me…" Momoi complained with an indignant expression, "It's not like I can't play, it's… it's just that I'm a little weaker on my left hand! She should had been able to tell how much effort I put into practice! I mean, I was still struggling to even combine both hands for the first segment of the song last week… And my right hand's playing is quite flawless too…" Of course, she knew that playing one hand smoothly wasn't enough to make her a real pianist.

Momoi was 12 when she began playing the piano. As compared to most of the other kids, she could be considered a late starter. When she was young, Momoi wasn't really interested in things like art and music – but that changed because of a public piano concert held in the local park.

On a summer afternoon when they were in sixth grade, Momoi and Aomine were on their way to the basketball court when they noticed the unusually massive amount of people gathered in the park. Lured by the huge crowd of spectators, Momoi pulled Aomine along and veered away from their original destination much to the protests of the blue-haired boy. Owing to their young age, the two of them easily made their way to the front of the crowd where they got a close-up view of the whole event. The stage was a simple raised platform behind which a banner which text Momoi had long forgotten was hung, and a single glossy black grand piano stood alone on the stage. Momoi had seen many pianos before, but none gave her the same awestruck feeling as the ethereal image of the dignified instrument amidst the usually mundane greenery of the park.

For once, Momoi was anticipating a music performance.

When the beautiful young pianist ascended the stage and began her first piece, Momoi was completely entranced by the melody in the air and the elegant look of the pianist's delicate long fingers gracefully darting across the piano keys. It could be because of the music, it could be because of the pianist's stunning smile. Either way, Momoi was adamant about picking up the piano after the impromptu experience.

That thought stuck with her till today; and it had been three years since then.

Huffing, Momoi rolled up the sleeves of her shirt with a determined expression and declared, "Whatever, I'll make her eat her own words!"

… And what this resolution of hers led to was her disappearance from basketball practice in the subsequent week.

**~x~**

"Daiki, do you know where's Satsuki?" asked Akashi when he noticed that their manager was absent.

"Ain't got an idea, she didn't tell me anything," Aomine grunted, grabbing a basketball from the floor and effortlessly attempting a three pointer – as expected, he scored.

Basketball was becoming somewhat… boring. He could be doing something else, like lazing around on the rooftop…

_Oh right._ Wasn't there an excuse to leave practice right in front of his face?

"Hey Akashi, I'll look for Satsuki around school," Aomine turned to the bench and quickly grabbed his phone before making his way to the exit in fear that Akashi will hold him back, "If I see her, I'll bring her back."

Already deciding that he'd ignore Akashi's call, Aomine was stunned to find himself rooted to the ground by a considerably soft and gentle "Daiki."

Something told Aomine that he should turn around – and he did, only to see an unamused smile on Akashi's handsome face.

An involuntary chill ran down Aomine's spine when he saw that.

There was something unsettling about the red eyes of his captain; the way they became distant all of a sudden, and depleted all the oxygen from the air. That had been happening for a while now, but the occurrences had been rapidly increasing. Even though it seemed like there was nothing out of the norm, Aomine felt the muscles in his body contracting whenever the void look crossed Akashi's eyes.

It was like an animal's natural retaliation against threats due to its primal instincts.

"I appreciate your rare initiative, Daiki. If you see Satsuki... Tell her that tardiness isn't appreciated in the club," said Akashi, his cool voice only made Aomine's muscles even tenser. "Do you understand?"

"… Yeah, alright," Aomine replied stiffly and exited from the gym.

It was a completely different environment outside of the gym without the suffocating atmosphere around Akashi. Absentmindedly kicking up dirt on the pavement, Aomine decided to comb the school once before reporting back to the red-haired captain.

_No pink in sight, no pink in sight, no – _

The blue-haired boy paused when he heard a familiar melody coming from the music room.

"Don't tell me…" Aomine muttered, walking towards the source of the piano playing. Without as much as a knock, he flung the door open unceremoniously.

Startled, the pink-haired girl on the piano stopped her playing and turned to face Aomine with her mouth agape.

"So you_ are_ here," Aomine cocked his head lazily and entered the air-conditioned room, damn it was hot out there, "skipping club activity to practice piano… you sure are daring." Aomine commented half-heartedly.

"Dai-chan! How did you find me?" Momoi blinked at her childhood friend and asked.

"You had been playing that song over and over again, I know it by heart already!" Aomine retorted. "Did ya' forget that there's basketball practice today?"

At his information, Momoi's eyes widened in horror. "O-oh no, I completely forgot about that! Is Akashi-kun angry at me?"

Picking up on her nervous tone, Aomine grinned unsympathetically. "What, now ya' scared? It's too late. Akashi told me to tell you that 'tardiness isn't appreciated in the club'."

"What should I do, Dai-chan? Akashi-kun had been scary recently…" looking down at her lap, Momoi's face paled.

"Simple, we just stay here," Aomine answered without a care, plonking down on the piano bench and leaning on Momoi, "In the club nowadays, late coming is no different from truancy anyway." There was a slight mocking tone to his voice.

"Y-you're right, Akashi-kun's going to punish us anyway…" Momoi smiled helplessly. "Thank you, Dai-chan."

"There's no need to thank me, I'm just here to escape from practice that's all," Aomine shrugged nonchalantly. "On a side note Satsuki, haven't you been playing this piece for a long time? Is it _that _difficult? It sounded pretty simple to me."

"Are you insulting me?" Momoi made a face at Aomine and sighed, "But frankly… It's not difficult. I guess, I'm just not ambidextrous. My left hand's playing is plain horrible."

Aomine looked at his childhood friend, sighting a rare forlorn expression on her face. "Did that old hag say something to you again?" He knew that that Takashi or whatever woman was an _outright bitch_. So what if she groomed many great pianists? That didn't justify her picking her students based on their natural endowment; if she only accepted talented students, he didn't see how she could be considered a great teacher.

"Takashi-sensei is a strict teacher…" Momoi smiled weakly. "You know, Dai-chan, my only wish at the moment is to play 'Fur Elise' perfectly just once." The light in her bright pink eyes dwindled when she confided in him her simple wish.

Aomine didn't like that look in her eyes. Momoi should be cheerful, vivacious and spirited.

"You're weak in your left hand right? Focus on your right hand then. I'll play with you," said Aomine gruffly.

"Huh? But you don't even play any musical instruments, Dai-chan," Momoi blinked in bemusement.

"Just do it, Satsuki," Aomine rolled his eyes.

"If you say so…" Scepticism was evident in Momoi's eyes when she removed her left hand from the piano. Aomine lifted his right hand and pushed down a few keys experimentally. Gauging the sound produced, he positioned his hand. "Are you seriously going to play with me?"

Sighing, Aomine didn't reply.

Sending a sidelong glare at Aomine, Momoi puffed up her cheeks and launched into the song without any heads up. Unperturbed, Aomine matched her pace, causing Momoi to gawk at him after two bars of perfect synchrony.

"You know how to play the piano!? Why didn't I know about this?"

"I don't. I just listen to your playing and I guess I picked it up along the way," Aomine shrugged. Figuring out the correct notes for a song after he had heard it just once came naturally to him like basketball.

"This is so unfair, this is so unfair… I've worked so hard and you, you… You're really detestable, Dai-chan!" Momoi cried out with an accusing pout.

"Does it matter? I'm not really interested in music and things like that. But if you're weak in your left hand I'll play it on your behalf. It's not like you're going to pursue a professional career in music anyway," Aomine drawled disinterestedly, "Oi, didn't you say that you want to play this 'Fur Elise' or whatever perfectly once? I think they call this a duet or something like that…" Aomine muttered, he wasn't really familiar with all the musical terms.

Momoi smiled brightly and grabbed Aomine by the arm, "Dai-chan's really awesome you know?"

"Just_ play_, Satsuki."

"Yes, yes."

That afternoon, students of Teiko who passed by the music room at a certain time interval reportedly had the fortune of hearing a beautiful 'Fur Elise' which was quite unlike any other versions of the classical piece that they have heard before by a mysterious pianist.

… Of course, nobody knew that there was not one pianist but two, and the loud, arrogant basketball regular Aomine Daiki was one of them.

* * *

Yes, Aomine has perfect pitch in this story. T_T I'm jealous. R&R? :)


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